Hi, this is Cyril from Work Smarter: Live Better. In this video, I want to share one simple advice that can increase both the quality and the speed of what you’re doing.
A lot of my clients have moved from offices to open plan. One of my clients, a big international food and Beverage Company, recently had a big move. Before most of the managers were in offices and they’ve moved the whole office to open plan. Every manager. So a big shift for a lot of people. And the problem for a lot of these managers is suddenly they find it really hard to focus, to concentrate. They’re at the desk and they’re supposed to do deep work but there is so much noise, interruptions, distractions around. The paradox is, the place where they work, which is their desk, has become not conducive to concentration and quality work.
We had a discussion with this group of managers, and one of my advice was “hide yourself”. So “What do you mean Cyril, hide yourself?”, well what I mean by hide yourself is focus is so important there’s sometime during the day where you need to put yourself in a place where you can really focus.
And so, how do you do this? A few examples.
One of my clients a few years ago said to me “Cyril, I’m going to start working from home one day a week. So I’m going to hide myself at home.” A few weeks after we debrief and I asked “How is it going?” and he said “Cyril, it’s amazing. Every week, every Wednesday, I work one day at home. In one day at home I do three times the amount of work I would have done in the office.”
Another one of my clients hides himself to another floor. At his desk everyone knows where to find him so when he’s at his desk, people come and interrupt. He takes his laptop, the have connectivity in the whole office, he goes to another floor and hides himself to a desk where no one knows him and he can focus.
Another of my clients go down the lift, cross the road, go to the coffee shop and focus in the coffee shop. And he said to me “Cyril, it’s amazing. There’s noise in the coffee shop, but no one interrupts and so I can be in the zone.”
Find your own way. But there are times where you need to hide yourself to focus. Really, really important one.
It will have two impacts. On quantity, you will do things much quicker. I estimate by a ratio of 1:3, that’s the speed that you’re getting. And the second impact is, the quality of your work will be enhanced.
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip. Hope you enjoy it. Focus is such an important part of quality work, of what we do, and this is just one tip to increase your focus. Until next time. You take care.
Cheers!
